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Barrowfield House

Mitchell Library, Glasgow Collection

Barrowfield House c 1844. A sundial reportedly found in the grounds suggests there may have been a house there as early as 1311, and there is a legend (as for so many houses) that Mary Queen of Scots once slept there.

In 1705 John Walkinshaw purchased a large area of land known as Barrowfield on the Gallowmuir, the moorland to the east of Glasgow that had once been used for cattle grazing and had been the place of public executions. The name probably derives from "Burgh field" - land held by the burgh. The Walkinshaws were ruined by their involvement with the Jacobite cause in the rising of 1715 and the mansion and lands of Barrowfield were subsequently acquired by the merchant John Orr.

The house was situated at the east end of Queen Mary Street and had an extensive walled garden stretching down to Dalmarnock Road. It was a ruin in 1844, by which time the village of Bridgeton had spread across large areas of the Barrowfield estate.

Reference: Mitchell Library, GC 941.435 GOR

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning